999 - "I would think...people would keep on ripping off people who record"

Quite right. They would. There are loads of people out there who will never pay for music again in their lives. Musicians will just have to learn to live with it as best they can.

Ed - "Sell your CD at a gig or online for whatever you choose"

Exactly. Some might buy it and others will find a copy for free. But neither will give a monkeys how many hours and how much cash has been put into producing it. Why should they? It's not as though they asked you to make it.

Spleen Cringe - "I do sometimes wonder why I'm trying to run a record label"

I thought you ran it because the music gives you a lot of pleasure and fun and because at least 250 other people will get loads of pleasure and fun when, for example, the Bellamy re-worked album comes out.